Agent Image The Design People Complaints Deception Fraud Scam Reviews El Segundo California

BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU PLAN TO USE INTERNET COMPANIES LIKE AGENT IMAGE (THE DESIGN PEOPLE). These companies can and will take your money and give you nothing. AGENT IMAGE took $3,499 from me and never even started on my web design. Read the details below of what happened to me!

On February 12, 2015 I made the mistake of calling the AGENT IMAGE phone number. The salesman that answered was named Brian Shorr. Brian quickly began telling me how great a reputation AGENT IMAGE (THE DESIGN PEOPLE) has. He also assured me that the company would not be able to stay in business unless they took care of their customers and did quality work. Brian promised me that he would personally take care of me through the entire design process. Unfortunately, I believed Brian's sales pitch and I decided to take the next step.

I started off by telling Brian Shorr that the web site I needed was going to take some custom work. The “whole basis” of my web site was going to be the display of some availability calendars. I explained to Brian that these calendars needed to have a different colored background for each day of the month and, most importantly, I needed to be able to edit the colors in these calendars on a daily basis without having to call AGENT IMAGE to change the colors for me. I showed Brian an example of an existing website with a similar type of calendar.

After I explained these calendars to Brian he told me he was not sure if his programmers could build calendars like this. He told me that he would need to go talk to his programmers to find out if they could build them. Brian then told me that I would have to go ahead and set up an account before he would get the programmers to look at my custom calendar request. But Brian promised me that he would have an answer for me within a few days and that he “would not” charge my credit card until “after” the programmers confirmed that they could build these calendars.

Brian Shorr told me that my cost for the entire completed web site, including the calendars, would be $2,999, which is the cost of the “Semi-Custom” level. If it were not for these custom calendars he said he would have only charged me for the Basic level. I then made my second big mistake when I gave Brian my credit card information and believed the verbal promises he had just made to me. When I gave Brian my credit card information he did not tell me that I had just agreed to a hidden contract which is extremely one-sided and gives AGENT IMAGE the rights to take my money and gives me very few rights.

Brian Shorr then sent me a “welcome” email to confirm the details of our discussion, mostly about how I needed a web site with custom availability calendars which I could edit on a daily basis from my own computer. At this point I felt good about my discussion with Brian. His “welcome” email confirmed in writing that my web site had to have these custom built calendars and it also said that I was being set up on a “Semi-Custom” plan because of these calendars. I trusted that Brian would do what he promised me and I had no idea that I was being set up for a scam.

A few days later I received a call from an employee of AGENT IMAGE named Sean Cura, who lives in the Philippines. Sean told me he wanted to get some photos, wording, and ideas from me so that he could begin designing a home page for me. I immediately told Sean about the promises that Brian Shorr had made to me regarding the custom calendars. I told Sean that Brian was going to talk to the programmers and get a confirmation that they could build the custom calendars before we made a decision to start the project. I also told Sean that I was "not" going to give him any photos or wording until “after” Brian had fulfilled this promise.

Over the next few weeks no progress was made. I spoke with Brian Shorr and Sean Cura several times and neither of them had any news for me on confirmations from the programmers. About the middle of March 2015 I received a statement from my credit card company and I found that AGENT IMAGE had charged my credit card for $3,499. I immediately called Brian Shorr and asked him about the charges. Brian told me that AGENT IMAGE forced him to charge my card and the additional $500 was for the first year's maintenance fee. When I complained to Brian about these charges on my card he asked me to give him more time to get a confirmation from the programmers about the calendars. This was my third big mistake, to trust Brian Shorr again and give him more time.

By May 2015 it was obvious to me that Brian and AGENT IMAGE had scammed me out of $3,499. I was told at that time that AGENT IMAGE was not planning to build the custom calendars for me. I then called my credit card company and opened a dispute with AGENT IMAGE over the $3,499.

It was at this time that AGENT IMAGE (THE DESIGN PEOPLE) showed their true nature. They pasted my name, a photo of a house, and a couple of sentences of wording that they themselves wrote, into a blank template. They captured a print screen of the top of this template to prove that they had designed my web page. They also printed out a long contract (heavily written in their favor) on which they had typed my name on the bottom to show that I had signed their contract. And finally, they wrote a letter saying that I had never mentioned these custom calendars until “after” my web site was “completely finished”, and the $2,999 price would not include the building of these calendars.

The truth is AGENT IMAGE “never even started” building my website because I have never given them any photos or wording. There is a big difference between “completely finished” and “never even started”. AGENT IMAGE refused to give my credit card company's dispute people a link to allow them to actually go online and see this “completely finished” website. Instead, AGENT IMAGE deceptively made a screen capture of the top few inches of a blank template that they created with my name printed at the top. This was their proof of a completely finished website.

As for their lie about me never mentioning the custom calendars until "after" my web design was completely finished, I would love to show a judge or jury the “welcome” email from Brian Shorr, which he sent me on the very first day, and which details these calendars. This email is definite proof that I was scammed by AGENT IMAGE.

I also never saw or signed their contract. Everybody, please think about this. Any “reputable” company will discuss their contract with you upfront and will advise you to read it, understand it, and sign your real signature on it. If a company's contract is hidden and not presented to you it is most likely because they don't want you to see it!

Unfortunately, my credit card's dispute people simply looked at this contract and believed that I had signed it.  The contract that AGENT IMAGE submitted to them basically said the customer has no rights to a refund.

If you are considering hiring someone to build a web site do yourself a big favor and hire a local reputable company and stay away from internet companies. If you take this advice you will most likely not end up losing $3,499 like I did.